Ups and Downs for the Week of April 1 - 5

This partial transcript of The Beltway Boys, April 6, was provided by the Federal Document Clearing House. Click here to order the complete transcript.

MORT KONDRACKE, CO-HOST: Let's go to the Ups and Downs.

Down: Prince Bandar, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States

KONDRACKE: Down, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar.  Just as his boss, Crown Prince Abdullah, is trying to push a Middle East peace plan, Bandar pens a poisonous op-ed piece in Friday's Washington Post, calling Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, quote unquote, "insane," and bemoaning what he calls Israeli aggression.

FRED BARNES, CO-HOST: You know, this piece penned by Bandar, this piece of propaganda, was particularly infuriating because he compared or likened Palestinian terrorists blowing up women and children in Israel to George Washington leading the Revolutionary Army against British colonial rule.

Now, maybe there were suicide bombers that George Washington was sending out to blow up innocent British women and children...

KONDRACKE: I don't think so.

BARNES: ... I don't remember reading that in the history books.

And the other thing was, there would have been no Revolutionary War in the United States if the British had offered ahead of time independence to the colonials here in the United States, which is exactly what the Israelis did to the Palestinians, to Yasser Arafat at Camp David, in 2000, a fact that Bandar did not mention.

KONDRACKE: Here's what, here's what Bush said he's expecting from the Arabs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: And I expect for the Palestinians to reject terror, and the Arab world, as Israel steps back, we expect the Arab world to step up and lead, to lead against terror, to get into immediate ceasefire, begin the implementation of U.N. Resolution 1042.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KONDRACKE: Now, this is another problem for the Powell mission. I mean, how is, how is – are you going to get Saudi Arabia to lean on Arafat...

BARNES: Yes.

KONDRACKE: ... to stop terrorism when Bandar is saying there's no such thing as Palestinian terrorism...

BARNES: Right, yes, I know, yes.

KONDRACKE: ... it's just resistance, you know, legitimate?

BARNES: Yes, yes. Very good point, well said.

Up: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

BARNES: Up, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld leads the administration's charge that Iran, Iraq, and Syria are spiritually and financially backing suicide bombings against Israel. Here's Rumsfeld telling it like it is at a briefing earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: They are simultaneously repressing their own people and denying them their rights and simultaneously going outside their country and attempting to finance and encourage and arm and equip people to go kill people in neighboring countries.

Now, that is uncivilized behavior.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KONDRACKE: My theory about all this is that the Mideast wing of the axis of evil, that's Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Yasser Arafat, are all in cahoots to try to knock U.S. strategy off its, off its base. U.S. strategy being a pro-Israeli stance in the Middle East, and also an attack on Saddam Hussein. And the more that, that the world's attention is focused on the Middle East, the less it can be focused on Saddam Hussein, and the, and the, the moderate Arabs are in an uproar, and that hurts us.

So I think they're a gang.

BARNES: Good, I second that theory. What's interesting particularly in what Rumsfeld said was about Syria, and Bush has mentioned Syria as well. Now, Bush has told people at the White House that he thought that the new president, not elected, of course, of Syria, Bashar Assad, could be pressured, and he wouldn't be a part of this axis of evil. Well, it turns out Rumsfeld thinks he is, and so do I.

KONDRACKE: He's the worst of the lot.

Up: Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle

KONDRACKE: Up, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. A group of political allies and former aides are coming to Daschle's defense, financing a weeklong TV campaign in his home state of South Dakota. The ad buy is a response to attack ads financed by conservative groups that began targeting Daschle back in October.

Here's a quick look at the pro-Daschle ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, DASCHLEDEMOCRATS.ORG AD)

ANNOUNCER: He's the leader of the U.S. Senate who's never forgotten where he comes from, Tom Daschle, leading the fight to protect Social Security and Medicare, passing tax relief for working families to get our economy moving again. And working with the president to fight terrorism and strengthen national security.

The out-of-state special interests may attack him, but we know the real Tom Daschle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARNES: You like that, "working with the president"? You'd think he's Karl Rove or somebody, the principal, the president's senior adviser.  But I don't think – I think Daschle does not want to get any more big-time highly visible fights with Bush.

KONDRACKE: Well, he's going to have lots of fights with Bush, and, you know, Daschle, the Daschle people think that, that it's Karl Rove who's behind all these ads attacking Daschle, and that they're really designed to defeat Senator Tim Johnson...

BARNES: Yes.

KONDRACKE: ... of South, South Dakota in this election...

BARNES: Yes.

KONDRACKE: ... thereby knocking Daschle out of the majority leader's job.

BARNES: Of course, that's who they're aimed at, no question about it.  Karl Rove, I'm sure these are, these ads don't happen totally unknown to him. All right.

Down: Marion Barry, former mayor of Washington, D.C.

BARNES: Down, former mayor – Washington, D.C., mayor, that is, Marion Barry.  Marion Barry recently found in its – was found in a secluded park with $5 worth of crack cocaine and a powdery substance under his nose, pulls out of the D.C. city council race. He was running for councilman...

KONDRACKE: Councilman.

BUSH: ... at large. You know, I, I've known him for more than 30 years. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the last time I interviewed him, he was mayor for life, or we called him that, of D.C. He swore he didn't use drugs at all then. Now he says the park police have set him up to try to discredit him.  Well, they've succeeded in discredit him even further.

KONDRACKE: I think it is now time for Marion Barry to fade into oblivion. And if his friends will do him a favor, they might hustle him off into drug rehab at the same time.

You know, this, this guy's career is, is been a blight on the district. He messed the city up. Anthony Williams, it's taken Anthony Williams now to, to get it back in, into kilter again, and I think it's – you know, all that Marion Barry would have been is a distraction.

BARNES: Yes, yes. Mort, don't sugarcoat it, please.

KONDRACKE: I won't.

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